FSFE at OggCamp 2011

OggCamp 2011 attracted 200-300 people, and the FSFE booth was successfully run by myself and Chris Woolfrey. We talked to approximately 60 people, handed out approximately 120 leaflets, received one donation, and sold five t-shirts. FSFE was generally well received and I felt that the booth was a great success.

OggCamp 2011 was a two day conference with talks and a small number of booths held in Surrey, about 1hr from South Central London. It is organised by Linux Outlaws and Ubuntu UK podcast. Some attendees had come from as far as Sweden and the USA in order to attend. The subject of the talks varied from the political to the technical, with an apparent emphasis on community activism. Ubuntu users and advocates made up a large part of attendees.

Due to the PDF Readers Sprint in Manchester on Saturday 13th, we arrived before lunch on Sunday 14th at OggCamp after traveling from London, and set up the booth in time for the lunch time crowds. Once set up, the booth looked professional and attractive, and generated interest throughout our time there.

FSFE booth at OggCamp

Ten minutes after arriving I was interviewed by Hacker Public Radio for their podcast, which will be published this week. I answered spontaneous questions about FSFE’s purpose and activities in Europe and the UK.

Whilst no new Fellows signed up at the event, more than ten people said that they intended to sign up at fsfe.org. Most people that we spoke to had little or no knowledge of FSFE, and whilst many were supportive, introducing someone to FSFE and also successfully encouraging them to join within the space of a few minutes proved difficult. I took the opportunity to advertise the 5 EUR per month payment option, and I was very glad to be able to offer this.

I was told that during a talk which took place before we arrived, when the speaker was asked how people could support the spread of Free Software in the UK, he replied that one way was to join FSFE.

Two FSFE Fellows had come to OggCamp independently of us as ‘crew’ helping to organise the conference, and were wearing FSFE t-shirts, which was very encouraging to see.